School lockers in a hallway. Getty Images.
An Ohio group said data showed “troubling” trends in youth mental health, but also said optimistic trends exist in school-community partnerships to address student behavioral health.
The Ohio Council of Behavioral Health & Family Services Providers , which says it represents 165 private entities that provide “community-based prevention, substance use, mental health and family services” in the state, studied data back to 2017 to track the partnerships between community behavioral health centers (CBHCs) and Ohio schools. They found the school-based behavioral health services have grown by more than 223% since then.
The council noted 3,610 schools – including public and private schools, educational service centers and charter schools – that offer “critical screening, prevention, treatment and crisis intervention services” through the CBHCs.
“In the last year alone, partnerships between schools and CBHCs grew by 21.8%, one of the largest documented expansions in school-CBHC partnerships since this data tracking began,” the study found.
Of those, 87.5% provide clinical or treatment services, 88.5% have prevention services and 60% engage in crisis intervention services.
Nearly all (97.5%) of the CBHCs collaborate with the schools in areas such as “school planning teams” or curriculum development, researchers stated.
“Integrating comprehensive mental health services like crisis intervention and counseling into schools through school partnerships removes barriers so students can access behavioral health services if-and-when they need them,” the study stated, “and fosters significant improvements in students’ mental and behavioral health outcomes, including reduced absenteeism, better academic performance and improved social-emotional skills.”
Though the CBHC progress was considered significant in the study, researchers also reported struggles staffing the school-based programs, with 1 in 3 schools/CBHCs reporting “challenges have worsened” over the last year. Vacancies in full-time school-based behavioral health staff has increased by more than 11% compared to the 2022-2023 academic year. The “high needs of students/long wait lists” is one of the top barriers to services, along with the shortage of staff.
The new data follows reports by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio , who ranked the state 44th of the 50 states in population health and health care spending, and found that youth mental health is struggling in Ohio, particularly among LGBTQ+ youth. The HPIO found that youth suicide rates are 4.8 times worse for LGBTQ+ youth in Ohio than for heterosexual/cisgender kids, and suicide attempts are 4.3 times higher for that group.
The state is also looking into the root causes of mental illness, along with substance use disorders and suicide. Gov. Mike DeWine announced in January that The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services would provide $20 million in grant funding for a study led by The Ohio State University, joined by other universities and hospitals across the state.
The study is set to “identify what we don’t know – the root causes, the risks, the preventive factors of mental illness,” Dr. Luan Phan, OSU College of Medicine’s chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health said when the study was announced.
The most recent study by the Council of Behavioral Health & Family Service Providers further tasked the state, specifically Ohio policymakers, to expand school-based services by covering funding shortfalls in the areas of prevention, consultation and treatment services, guide schools on “funding strategies to grow and strengthen community partnerships,” along with bringing solutions to behavioral health workforce shortages and increases in access to “screening and early intervention for mental health challenges and at-risk populations.”
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